1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to data communication and more particularly to optimizing a bus for personal computer data traffic.
2. Description of the Related Art
In current and future personal computer systems, two basic types of data are transferred between integrated circuits: isochronous data and asynchronous data. Isochronous data refers to data used in real-time data streams such as audio data or motion-picture video data. Asynchronous data is used for all other transfers, such as central processing unit (CPU) accesses to peripherals or bulk data transmissions from a hard drive into system memory.
At present, proper support for both kinds of data in computer systems is inadequate. For example, the peripheral component interface (PCI) bus, a major input/output bus in present computer architectures, does not support isochronous data. If a computer system gives asynchronous data priority or treats isochronous data as asynchronous data, then those functions relying on real time data, such as motion-picture video, may not function satisfactorily. Alternatively, if a computer system prioritizes isochronous data, then the performance of the computer system can suffer since the latency of asynchronous data becomes unacceptably long. As computer systems are called on to perform more and more real time activity, such as real time video, it becomes more critical that asynchronous and isochronous data be treated in a manner that prevents problems from occurring in the real time tasks without adversely effecting other aspects of computer performance. Thus, there exists a need to appropriately accommodate both kinds of data in present and future computer systems.